Did Exxon perpetuate a recycling ‘myth’? California sues.
Single-use plastic has become ingrained into the fabric of our daily lives. It’s nearly impossible to live in our world without using various types of plastic every day, such as coffee cups, snack wrappers, and takeout containers. When we recycle these products, we reasonably assume that they will be processed and converted into reusable material. Believing that the plastic we dispose of on a daily basis will be recycled is perfectly normal. In fact, we have been told by the very producers of these single-use plastics that recycling will mitigate the harmful affects of waste on our environment. However, the recent lawsuit against Exxon Mobil suggests that plastic consumers may have been told a lie.
On Monday, September 23, the attorney general of California sued the oil giant Exxon Mobil for enticing consumers to buy single-use plastics under the assumption that they will be recycled. Exxon Mobil is one of the biggest producers of polyethylene, a single-use plastic (Impaakt). The suit claims that Exxon Mobil encourages the use of the recycling symbol on plastic goods, thereby instilling in customers that their products, when sorted correctly, will be recycled. The office of the attorney general alleges that Exxon Mobil has failed to communicate to its customers that “only about 5 percent of plastic waste in the United States is recycled.” The lawsuit argues that Exxon has been able to profit off of its single-use plastic production as consumers continue to believe that their consumption is not incredibly harmful to the planet.
Other state and local governments have recently sued companies for contributing to the climate crisis, such as one in Hawaii against Sunoco (NYTimes). Though these cases have yet to go to trial, they could represent a new era of climate action in the legal world. After the announcement of the lawsuit against Exxon, environmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club, announced that they too are suing the company.
The lawsuit also says that Exxon Mobil made “misleading claims…about its ‘advanced recycling’ program, which claims to transform used plastics into new products.” In fact, the attorney general alleges that this advanced-recycling program turns most waste into fuel that contains little recycled material, yet is sold at a premium price. Though Exxon maintained that its program did reuse waste, the lawsuit upheld that it was merely a “public relations stunt.”
The lawsuit is not void of legal challenges, as it is still unclear if Exxon is concealing its recycling difficulties or if there is sufficient evidence for the attorney general office’s claims. Although we don’t yet know if Exxon will ultimately be charged, it is likely that we will begin to see the “tide change in the pursuit of corporate accountability through the courts for damage to the environment,” especially as concerns over climate change increase.
If recycling really is a myth, what should we do? For one thing, we can continue to trust other recycling programs, such as those created for aluminum and glass, as these materials have much higher rates of being effectively recycled than single-use plastics (EarthDay). That being said, an effective way that we can prevent single-use plastics from ending up in the landfill is through the signing of the Global Plastics Treaty, which is in its final stage of negotiation at the end of this year. Environmentalists like the World Wildlife Fund are pushing for countries to phase out all unnecessary plastic products and decrease their plastic consumption (WWF). Advocating for this treaty, as well as other similar policies in your own communities, will help create meaningful change for the future.
Source: NYTimes
